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Warlock builds
Warlock talent builds are many and varied. Each tree is worth spec'ing up to 51 points in, and many builds invest more than 51 points in their primary tree. Regardless of which path a player eventually chooses, it is sure to be littered with many tough choices. Leveling to 80 A comprehensive guide to leveling, including talent selection, can be found under Leveling a warlock. Affliction Builds The DoTs Curse of Agony and Corruption are some of the most mana-effective and time effective spells available for the Warlock. The Affliction talent tree can improve on these even more. There is always the issue of the mob dying killed before the full completion of a DoT. This is especially bad for Curse of Agony, that causes more of its damage in the last third of its duration (and is often omitted or Curse of Elements used instead for this reason). There are also some issues with using DoTs in parties and raids. In particular, many Crowd Control abilities break if the affected creature takes any damage. A mob affected by a DoT spell essentially becomes immune to a significant number of CC measures. This build utilizes Drain Life over shadow bolt, to conserve mana, which overall turns out to be more dps over a long fight. Full points into eradication and Death's Embrace, a double proc results in extra DPS. Points into suppression and cataclysm for the hit, and no Fel Concentration, as you shouldn't be getting hit in a raid situation. The points are better spent deeper in the tree. Rotation goes: Haunt --> Siphon Life --> CoA/CoE --> Corruption --> Unstable --> Haunt again --> Immolate. After this, Drain life until you get Nightfall procs, then rinse and repeat. Keep unstable, Corruption, and CoA up at all times, as they are your top damage dealers, along with Haunt. At 25%, switch from Drain Life to Drain Soul, as the 4x damage increase puts out massive dps with full dots. Curse of elements if nothing overwrites it, and repeat the rotation. It puts out great damage on boss fights, but trash pulls result in lower dps. The general deep affliction raiding build. 3 points in suppression and cataclysm to lower the hit needed from items. Only 1 point in eradication because the other 2 points are better spent elsewhere, see explanation here. Spell rotation will be: keep all dots on the target and refresh them just after they have run out, cast haunt whenever it's off cooldwon, cast shadowbolt in between while target is over 25% health, drain soul when target is below 25% health (if all dots are on the target, this will tick for upwards of 9000 damage every 3 sections). If there is no moonkin or unholy death knight in the raid, put up curse of elements, otherwise curse of agony. To adapt this build for normal and heroic instances the points from suppression and cataclysm should be spent somewhere else. Takes very much focus to get the timing right on all dots, and to make sure you don't waste mana to reapply dots. *NOTE* I don't recommend this build if you are a clicker like me. Pros: Great damage (on bosses) if played right. Use infernal/doomguard on bossfights for maximum dps. Cons: Damage on trash mobs will be very low. Spell rotation is very complex and hard to keep up if the fights involve more than just standing around. Very little raid support. This build places more emphasis on your own DPS. Updates to the trees in 3.1 has removed hit from Cataclysm leading to 3 points being freed. In the linked build, 3 points are available from Improved Drain Soul and Fel Concentration to be moved to Improved Imp and Demonic Power to buff your Imp if you let the little fellow pound away all the time which is worth at least a couple of hundred DPS. Only issue is if you have a threat problem needing the threat reduction from Improved Drain Soul The basic opening rotation: Life Tap Rank 1, Shadow Bolt, Haunt, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, Curse of Agony, Shadow Bolt filler. Renew DoTs as needed. Life Tap max rank to maintain the buff every 20 sec. Under 25% HP of the mob, Shadow Bolt is replaced by Drain Soul. The doomguards and infernals will increase your DPS more than in other trees/builds. A flexible PvP build that combines strong DoTs with Dark Pact for mana and Soul Link and Nether Protection for survivability. With the Felhunter Master Demonologist buff nerfed, Nether Protection (now applying to all schools) provides protection from casters. Once the enemy is dotted and feared, watch Molten Core proc and finish with a few Searing Pain crits. This build has all the atributes of SL/SL and a lot more damage. This build is specced to put as many affliction effects on the target as possible to give your drain life the maximum possible health gain. Demonology Builds The Demonology talent tree and the use of summoned demons are what mainly distinguishes a Warlock from a Mage. With patch 3.0.2, Demonology became a far more viable building for PvE and PvP. Though, it will still not top the damage meters in a group of even geared players, you most likely will not be the bottom anymore. With the new talents added we are also able buff fellow casting allies the same way a Hunter buffs Melee based allies. In 2v2 Demonology is far more viable as well. With the addition of Metamorphasis and the spells that come with it, you are a force to be reckoned with. Glyphs to use/ LIFE TAP, FELGUARD, IMMOLATE The purpose of this build is to offer the most to the raid that you can using demonic pact if there is no shaman available. The rotation is EXTREMELY easy. COE or COA depending on make of group, life tap, immolate, corruption. Making sure to use demonic empowerment as much as possible and spamming shadow bolts like crazy. This is a medium to high dps build that offers a LOT to the raid especially if you have other casters with you. Good burst damage not very gear oriented. By passing up metamorphosis for Devastation we increase our dps out put CONSIDERABLY seeing how Metamorphosis is not very useful for raiding purposes.Make sure to use spell stones for increased haste. This build takes both Emberstorm and Decimate, with Emberstorm increasing Soul Fire damage by 15% for spectacular synergy. Spare points in Demonic Tactics further improves nuke damage. The beauty of this build is the cycle is VERY easy. Curse of Agony or Curse of Elements, immolate, corruption then spam Incinerate like crazy making sure to pop Demonic empowerment when ever you can. When Decimate becomes available, interleave Incinerates with Soul Fires. The downside is the lack of Demonic Pact given by deeper Demo builds. This build was originally conceived after switching over to a Demo/Destro and missing the low down time of a full Affliction build. It does not have the highest DPS nor is it intended to. Rather it allows a warlock with mediocre gear to be on par with the rest of the party when it comes to trash mobs unlike a full Affliction build, but does not have the downtime of Destruction. The DOT rotation while grinding is a simple Curse of Agony, Corruption and Shadowflame kept up on 4-5 mobs with Demonic Empowerment triggered whenever possible. For elites and boss fights just add Immolate to your rotation and use Shadow Bolt as your filler spell until HP drops to below 25%. When this happens, switch over to Drain Soul to take advantage of the 4x multiplier at maximum rank. If you want to use this as a leveling build it is possible but will not work as intended until level 71 and will just be very annoying until level 57 when you get Improved Life Tap. The glyphs that complement this play style are , , and . An alternate verified version of this can be found here Destruction Builds An interesting thing has happened since 3.0.2 came out. We 'locks are no longer tied to a specific school of magic. While this can be perceived as a boon to our kind due to the endless possibilities, it can also be considered a bit of a hindrance. We've become so much more complex, especially when it comes to the Destruction tree. No longer do I simply sac my Succubus, throw out a CoA and spam SB's until everything around me falls into a pile of steaming flesh. There's more to the Destructo-lock than before. Now that Spell-power is the way of the world, our gear no longer relegates us to being either a "shadow 'lock" or a "fire 'lock". A heavy destruction build very good for raiding. Cycle is immolate, (corruption), chaos bolt, incinereate, incinerate, conflagerate when under 5 secs left of immolate. Refresh corruption when it expires but it doesn't always fit with the cycle. I personally like to use a felhunter for the buff, and it does some damage when possible to have him in melee. A heavy destro build based on my early experience. Now destruction is damage efficient and has the Soul Link survival ability. A "fire" destruction spec, based on an old spec from here for lv70. Note that the spec does not include Conflagrate, due to the awkwardness of removing the immolate spell. Use an imp in raiding (perhaps moving points from improved life tap and/or improved healthstone into improved imp). Spell order is Chaos Bolt, Corruption, then either Curse of Agony, or perhaps Curse of Elements (less recasts) (check your DPS, still untested), Immolate, spam Incinerate, then just pop Chaos Bolt whenever you can, and reset your DoTs whenever they run out, and keep spamming Incinerate at other times. Now tested, provides decent DPS, but 0/41/30 raid seems to be better for both hcs and raids, which seems to only be second to heavy afflic in raids Destro build that utilizes the warlocks fire abilities. The points in demonology provide a dps and stam buff for you and your imp (and raid) as well as more survivability. Fel Domination/Master Summoner is for when your imp gets nuked. The points in improved healthstone (especially if you raid with other warlocks) can be spent in Soul Leech or Nether Protection. Rotation is Curse of Elements->Immolate->Chaos Bolt->Incinerate(3 to 4 times or until Immolate runs low)->Confalgrate rinse and repeat(don't reapply CoE). Easiest/simplest build I've found so far, and it is within the top 3 of dps charts. Excellent spec for locks new to raiding, or veterans. If you have another lock that's dedicated to Curse of Elements or Affliction with the improved talent, use Corruption and/or Curse of Agony to proc Molten Core (any dps boost is nice!). I've found this is best for bosses or mobs with 130k+ health. This build is similiar to other Fire/Imp builds but kinda different. This build only uses points in Destruction to boost fire damage and has chaos bolt and empowered imp. In demonology it has improved imp and has 5 points in Unholy power to boost the imp's damage even more. I also recommend getting . This build is a high dps build and is very viable for bosses. The rotation I think is best is Curse of Elements, Immolate, Chaos bolt, Spam incinerate until immolate is about to run out then conflagrate. Rinse and repeat. Crit oriented, shadowbolt spamming build. Core elements in destro tree: Imp SB, Bane, Cataclysm, Ruin, Devastation, Backlash, S&F. In affi: imp CoA, Suppression, Imp and Emp Corruption, Nightfall, SM. One point is optional for eradication (seams best option) dark pact (which pretty much sucks now) or even shadofury if you can find use for it. Glyphs used by me are , and . Warning: dmg on thrash mobs in hc's is likely to be low (due to low haste rating) and threat management can be hard. This build is mostly using Incinerate it does a significant amount of damage and your high crits will take your opponent down rather quickly. But you still have the ability to have your DoTs pick away at your enemy or use survival techniques like stunning or soul link to keep alive when you are in need of it most. Most people have claimed that destruction is not a PvP build so i usually stayed away from it until now. I relearned my talents full destruction and i am very impressed. I was previously SL/SL which is an excellent arena build. This build is made so that you can through your DoTs on and corruption will actually do some damage instead of being weakless like most destro builds. The 15 points in demonology is made for survivability. Demonic Embrace increases your stamina, improved healthstone heals you for a significant amount especially if you have the glyph, soul link splits your damage, and fel domination is used for moderately quick demon summoning. Improved Succubus may come in handy with the 'ol "seduce and nuke" technique. The 51 in destruction is just getting your procs for and instant casts, protection and stunning with SF. Chaos Bolt was a little disappointing to me but its good for piercing through absorbtions and resistances. Getting big crits is usually helpful thanks to Backlash. The instant cast Incinerate or Shadowbolt proc comes up pretty often for me. I have the so i usually incerate because it crits pretty high and emberstorm increases its damage. I am sure it will do well in BG's, but i am curious to see if it does well in arena because destro usually doesnt belong in arena. This is a really great build for end game raiding. It puts a lot of emphasis on the imp, but it isn't necessary for the imp to be attacking for you to gain the benefits, so on fights with a lot of raid damage you can keep your imp protected. It also gives a huge crit chance bonus from Devastation and Master Demonologist. That's a total of a 10% bonus to your destruction-fire spells, which is basically all your going to be using anyway. Molten Core makes throwing Corruption into the rotation practical and beneficial. The absense of Conflagrate may not seem beneficial, but without Backdraft, it really only hinders your DPS. Also, it is much easier to maintain a steady, constant rotation without it. I think one of the best parts of this spec is how easy it is to maintain the rotation. Once you get Curse of Elements up, it should go something like Immolate->Corruption->Incinerate x3-4 and repeat. Your Corruption uptime won't match up with that of Immolate so you should cast it outside of the rotation when needed. So far tested to be one of the highest specs for raiding. This increases your crit rating by 13% off of talents alone as long as the imp is out and increases your fire damage by 25%. This is a very high damage spec still falling a little behind affliction but doesnt require as fast of a connection as affliction or the difficult rotation either. Suggested Glyphs: and Important Stats: Crit rating and Spellpower. Dark Pact is taken which makes mana not a problem (which it is for Destro locks) and everything that increases crit/dmg on Destruction spells. This build gives 18% bonus crit on Searing Pain and 8% on all destruction spells. Ruin and bump up the critical damage of Searing Pain by 120%. Add a for even more. When soloing cast CoA and Corruption (mostly for Molten Core procs) and then spam searing pain. When the mob gets your HP down switch to Drain Life. When molten core procs go back to Searing Pain. Cast shadow bolt when Nightfall procs. The biggest problem with this build is that you are pretty much limited to either the Imp (preferred) or the Felhunter as your mana battery. The focus on Searing Pain makes this build unsuitable for group PvE (if you don't pull aggro from spamming Searing Pain then you're not doing enough damage). Using affliction spells with incinerate or shadow bolt is possible, but the lack of focus on any of them will make them all poor compared to a proper PvE build. Older Builds * Warlock Builds pre-TBC * Warlock Builds TBC Category:Guides Category:Warlocks Category:Talents